JSC370 - Assignment #5

Objectives

  • Design of a data-driven infographic poster.
  • Plan a data story: audience, data, statistical analysis, insights, importance, narrative and intended effect.
  • Plan your design: storyboard.
  • Iterative visualization design: create to-the-point, well thought-out, perceptually effective visualizations.

Assignment Instructions

  • You may choose to complete this assignment alone or with one other student. Please email the professor once you have decided.
  • Pick a topic/questions that you would like to explore using data
  • Plan a data story: what is your narrative? who is your audience? what is your message? what statistical analyses support your story?
  • Plan the design of your data story
  • Create effective visualizations that convey your story.
  • → Online presentation on March 31, 18:00-20:00

  • → Poster and written report on April 6, 23:59


The goal of this exercise is to create an infographic poster to communicate important key take-aways about a topic of your choice, using a data story (see examples below). You are free to pick any dataset(s) of your choice, including those studied in previous assignments, or any new external data sets that is of your interest.

Example of a data-driven infographic poster telling a story about the ebola virus outbreak, published in the Nature magazine in October 2014. See the pdf for the poster in high-resolution.
Example of data-driven infographic poster by Deb Pang Davis telling a story about the of HIV over the past 20 years, longlisted in the 2019 Information is Beautiful Award. See this link for the poster in high-resolution, along with report of the author's design process and reflections.
By the same author, Deb Pang Davis, example of a data-driven infographic poster telling a story about financial challenges facing senior households (65+) in Florida (also longlisted in the 2019 Information is Beautiful Award. See this link for the poster in high-resolution and short report of the author's design process and reflections.

Your infographic poster must satisfy the following criteria:

Report

Documenting your process

There are many steps and iterations that will go into the design of your poster, including data exploration, creation of intermediary artifacts, such as storyboards, sketches, poster drafts, and so on. It is good practice to document this iterative design process, and provide a journal explaining the different design phases and iterations as decisions are being made and revisited.

As part of this assignment, you are requested to document and report on your design process. Create a report that describes and explains the different phases of your design.

  • What are the big steps in your design process?
  • Discuss what you did and why you did it. For example, why did you choose to display the data one way versus another. Why did you choose to display transformed data instead of raw data?
  • Include illustration of intermediary results, such as code snippets and results, drawings and sketches, storyboards, etc...
  • Share your reflections.

Design

I. Understand the data, flush out the story

First of all, you need to decide on the story that you want to communicate to an audience. Importantly, think about the following aspects when outlining your story:

  • Who is your audience?
  • What is your data?
  • What are the insights about the data?
  • How does your statistical analysis support these insights?
  • Why is this important?
  • What is the story that you are going to tell?
  • What effect are you hoping to have?

Work on the following with your team-mate:

Task 1. Provide an initial answer to each of the above questions. Your overarching story must have of at least three connecting ideas (i.e. three perspectives of the same data). For example, the infographic Ebola by the numbers shows:

(1) the distribution of Ebola cases across time in the 2014 outbreak;

(2) the distribution of Ebola cases geographically in the 2014 outbreak;

(3) the distribution Ebola cases in Africa.

Task 2. Create a rough storyboard (i.e. poster layout) indicating the different elements of your story, how they organize spatially into a sequence. Do not yet focus on a detailed design for your different visualizations.

II. Visualization design

Now that you have a plan for your data story, and its different connecting components, you can delve into visualization design more deeply.

Task 1. Work on this task individually, without consulting your team-mate. Create 4-6 different visualization design ideas for the first element of your data story.

Task 2. Discuss your visualization ideas with your team-mate. Discuss: Which problems did you discover? Which design works well?

Task 3. Chose one design or create a new visualization design combining design ideas for this story element. Then iterate to improve readability and add more data to it.

Task 4. Repeat Tasks 1-3 for all of the other components of your story.

III. Weave the story: text and visualizations

Now that you have a detailed idea of your data story, its logical flow, and the supporting visualizations, you are ready to create your visual and textual assets.

Task 1. Use the software tools (e.g., Python/R, Powerpoint, Keynote, Illustrator, etc.) of your choice to generate the visualizations designed in Part II. All of data analyses, and graphics should be reproducible, so that you can make refinements to your final design in Part IV.

Task 2. Consolidate your story, by creating appropriate text and annotations that will go into your poster.

IV. Bring it all together

The last step consists of generating your poster design.

Task 1. Use the tool of your choice to combine these elements into your poster design.

Task 2. Iterate on the visual design (color scheme, fonts, layout, design elements) to make your poster coherent, consistent and visually appealing and clear.



Submission and Grading

Preparation Lab Expectations

  • This lab will take place online on March 24, 18:00-20:00.
  • Use this time to meet with your partner online.
  • Develop strategies on how you plan to tackle the assignment.
  • At 19:30 on March 24 you and your partner will give a very short presentation on your group's plan.
  • By the end of the tutorial you should have a plan on how you will create a data story, and how you will proceed with designing the poster. If you are working with a partner then you should decide on how you will split-up the work.
  • Submit a brief written plan.

Presentation

Your presentation should focus on explaining the data story that your poster is supposed to communicate. Feel free to include details about the an design challenges or why it was difficult to use a static poster, instead of, say, an interactive visualization, to communicate your messages.

Presentation Expectations

The time allotted for each presentation is 7 minutes plus 3 minutes for questions/discussion, or if you are working with a partner then the presentation should be 10 minutes plus 3 minutes for questions/discussion. If you are working with a partner then each person should present for approximately half the time (i.e., 5 minutes). If you exceed the time limit then you will be asked to stop the presentation. This means that you should rehearse your presentation timing before you present to the class.

General Presentation Guidelines

The goal of the presentation is to effectively communicate your data story. This does not mean that you should not include technical details, but you should aim to communicate the findings to an audience without a background in statistics, math, or computer science.

You will need to remind us about the question your group is answering, but only tell us what we really need to know. We are curious about the results, and how you present the results, but they are not the only purpose of this presentation. So, what should you include?

Your presentation will be graded using the presentation rubric.

The slides that you use for the presentation should be uploaded to Quercus for this assignment by **March 31, 18:00**.

Submission

What should be submitted?

  • A write-up with a short answers to the questions as a pdf file.
  • Your poster as a pdf file.
  • Data, Jupyter notebook/script files used to produce the data visualizations in the poster.

When should it be submitted?

  • The poster and report should be submitted by April 4, 2020, 23:59.

Grading

The assignment is worth 16% of the course grade. The poster and written report will be worth 5% and 3% respectively, and the oral presentation will be worth 8%.

Written report rubric

Your writing will be evaluated for clarity and conciseness.

Your report should have the following sections:

Title [1-5]: There should be an appropriate title, adequate summary, and complete information including names and dates.

Design process [1-5]: Outline the steps of your design process.

Rationale behind design process [1-5]: What did you design and why was it designed in this manner? For example, Why did you choose to display transformed data instead of raw data?

Examples of Design Process [1-5]: Show some examples of intermediate results (e.g., graphs created that were not included in the poster), code snippets, statistical results, drawings and sketches, storyboards, etc...

Reflections and Conclusions [1-5]: Why is your group's poster an effective communication tool? This section should also include a discussion of limitations and/or concerns and/or suggestions for future consideration as appropriate.

Poster grading rubric

The grading rubric for the infographic design is outlined below.

Category 5 4 3 2 1
Technical content
(2.5 pts)		 Data analyses clearly support the claims. The methods employed are sound. The explanations are clear for the intended audience. Language choices are imaginative, memorable, and compelling, and enhance the effectiveness of the presentation. When using technical vocabulary or concepts, the poster explains it in a way that all members of the class can understand. Data analyses generally support the claims. The methods are generally adequate. The explanations are reasonably clear for the intended audience. Language choices are thoughtful and generally support the effectiveness of the poster communication. The poster uses technical vocabulary or concepts, but does not explain it in a way that all members of the audience can understand. Data analyses do not fully support the claims. The methods are not fully adequate. The explanantions are occasionally unclear. Language choices are mundane and commonplace and partially support the effectiveness of the presentation. The speaker occasionally uses technical vocabulary and does not explain it in a way that all members of the class can understand. Data analyses barely support the claims. The methods are questionable. The explanations are difficult to follow. Language choices are mundane and commonplace and detracts from understandability. The poster occasionally misuses technical vocabulary or use technical vocabulary without explanations. Data analyses do not support the claims. The methods are inappropriate. The explanations are do not help understand. Language choices are unclear and minimally support the effectiveness of the presentation. The poster does not use technical vocabulary at all.
Visualization design
(2.5 pts)		 The visualizations are well thought-out, meaningful, perceptually effective, and polished. The visualizations are truthful to the data, while being tailored to support the claims in the poster. The design of the visualizations is generally appropriate, but could be improved. The visualizations generally support the claims in the poster. The design of the visualizations is somewhat appropriate, but other approaches would have been more suitable. The visualizations only partially support the claims in the poster. The design of the visualizations is not appropriate. The visualizations are tangential to the claims in the poster. The design of the visualizations is not relevant to the disucssion. The visualizations are completely disconnected from the claims in the poster.
Clarity of the data story
(2.5 pts)		 The claims, and main ideas are obvious and easy to understand. No unnecessary text or visuals. The infographic poster makes an excellent initial impression, with an extremely clear message. The claims, and main ideas are understandable. No, or barely any unnecessary text or visuals can distract from the main subject. The infographic poster makes a good initial impression, with a clear message. The claims, and main ideas are made, but require some effort to understand. Some text or visuals are unneded and distracts from the main subject. The claims, and main ideas are unclear. The infographic poster is confusing, and makes a poor initial impression. The claims, and main ideas are missing. The infographic poster is not understandable.
Poster design and organization
(2.5 pts)		 Layout is organized, and uses consistent style. Visuals show connection to content and create a clear, legible visual flow. Color scheme has visual appeal and works well with the content. Fonts are legible and consistent. Design elements are clearly informed by content. Layout is generally good. Visuals are generally well connected to content. Visual flow is generally understandable, but the layout has minor inconsistency or distracting elements. Design elements are relevant to the content. Layout could use improvement. Visuals are not fully connected to content, making the visual flow unclear. Some elements are inconsistent. The layout distracts from content. Hard to read fonts. Color scheme clashes. Layout is disorganized. No obvious organization. Visuals and content are disconnected. Layout distracts from content. Color scheme is confusing. No layout or scheme. Just random elements, colours, and fonts.